Judith Malina is photographed after a rehearsal of the Living Theatre company for the play “No Place to Hide” at Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center. The play, a work in progress, is the first production of the company after leaving their theater of seven years on 21 Clinton St in 2013. New York, March 19, 2014 ©Gaia Squarci

Today I am handing over the post to documentary photographer Gaia Squarci who is taking this opportunity to not only celebrate the birthday, but the life and career of director Judith Malina who passed away in April.

Today is Judith Malina’s Birthday

The Living Queen

by Gaia Squarci

By blind chance back in September 2013, I shared a glass of wine in Bergamo, Italy, with musician Pietro Pirelli, whom I had never met before. When I mentioned I was living in New York, he jumped, “Then you must meet my friend Judith Malina! We worked together a few years ago, do you know the Living Theatre?

Judith and her husbands Julian Beck and Hanon Reznikov changed the history of American theatre. They brought it to the streets, to prisons, to mental institutions. Julian died in the 80’s but Judith is still alive. She’s a pacifist and she doesn’t believe in money. Her message is always political. Of course, she’s been arrested in twelve countries. She lives in New Jersey now, in an old people’s home, but she never stopped working towards her cause. You should visit her. She’s an incredible woman.”

Once back in New York Tom Walker, associate artistic director and archivist of the Living Theatre, helped me to get to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, where Judith had lived since 2013.

She was 87 when I met her. The tiniest woman with a raspy voice, nearly deaf, slowly pushing herself around in a wheelchair with her miniature black shoes, she would look up at you and make you feel incredibly small. I felt a straight, focused stream of energy coming from her, who knew exactly what she wanted. She was whole, and I couldn’t help but feeling lesser in front of her, vague.

Judith Malina gestures in her room at the Lillian Booth Actors Home, an assisted-living facility where she moved in 2013 because of medical and financial difficulties. Englewood, New Jersey. January 9, 2014. ©Giai Squarci

I never knew much about theatre. I told her photography is my way to learn about the others. She was working with young actors and I said I wanted to follow her and the company. She could barely hear me, and because of my accent she could understand even less of what I was saying. She always heard just enough when she wanted to, though.

“Well, yeah, you can keep learning forever, but if with what you’ve learnt you don’t start the Revolution, then all of it is completely useless”.

Judith was blunt. She was saying the kind of things you need to hear but no one ever says. Niceness was not beautiful enough for her. She was witty, vain, mischievously cute and superbly uncompromising. A queen, in other words.

Judith Malina directs a rehearsal of the Living Theatre company for the play “No Place to Hide” at La MaMa rehearsal studios. The play, a work in progress, is the first production of the company after leaving their theater of seven years on 21 Clinton St in 2013. New York, March 13, 2014. ©Gaia Squarci

The queen received visitors almost every day in Englewood, but when one person came, I could see her eyes light up like with no one else.

Brad Burgess was then her closest friend and working partner. He was only 28 at the time, but the two of them had lived together for six years after the death of Judith’s second husband Hanon, until the company lost their theatre in the Lower East Side.

It was a bond of a higher kind, unlike any other I had ever witnessed. An elderly woman who raised professionally a young man, shaping his views and entrusting her legacy in his hands, and a young man who unblinkingly devoted to her his whole twenties. Two pure idealists and two painfully stubborn, unmanageable persons, for a long time they had been each other’s mainstay through honors and free falls, holding on tightly, watching baseball together and bickering like a married couple.

It was Judith and Brad’s world.

Judith Malina is helped out of Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center after directing a rehearsal of the play “No Place to Hide”. The play, a work in progress, is the first production of the company after leaving their theater of seven years on 21 Clinton St in 2013. New York, NY. March 18, 2014. ©Gaia Squarci

I met them when they already knew it wouldn’t last very long.

Judith suffered from emphysema, and she died this April 10th.

Shortly after on that day Brad sat down close to her, and after the longest silence he just said: “Babe, what an incredible life you had. You nailed it!”

Brad Burgess, executive producer and Judith Malina, founder of the Living Theatre, are photographed in a car preparing to go back to Englewood, New Jersey, where Malina lives, after a rehearsal of the play “No Place to Hide” at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center. New York, NY March 17, 2014 Judith Malina died on April 10, 2015. Burgess became artistic director of the Living Theatre and Judith Malina’s successor according to Malina’s will when she was alive. ©Gaia Squarci

Today is her 89th birthday.

I’m happy to write to Judith on her birthday for the many times I was not able to make myself understood with her, either shouting with an accent or shooting in silence, taking in.

She was an icon for many, but she offered herself generously because she was curious of everyone, although easily disappointed. When she looked at people asking a question, she really wanted to hear the answer; preferably a sharp one. For nearly 89 years Judith never stopped pushing people to their highest selves, spreading herself around the world in such a way that her recent death already pales in front of her relentless life, and the echo she triggered which others will sustain.

I remember her with the words once Brad used to depict her: “An aristocratic anarchist”.

Judith Malina kisses goodbye to Brad Burgess at the end of his visit at the Lillian Booth Actors home, where she lives. Burgess, executive producer of the company, has been the person who most took care of Malina since the death of her second husband, Hanon Reznikov. Englewood, NJ. November 11, 2014 Judith Malina died on April 10, 2015. Burgess became artistic director of the Living Theatre and Judith Malina’s successor according to Malina’s will when she was alive. ©Gaia Squarci

Gaia Squarci is a photographer and cinematographer based in New York City. Raised in Milan, Italy, she studied Art History in at University of Bologna and photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in New York. Gaia’s work focuses on documentary projects. Photography brought her to work on the way physical perceptions influence people’s way to interact with one another, and feel about each other. Gaia’s clients include the New York Times, the New Yorker, Time Magazine, Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, VICE and L’Oeil de le Photographie. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Italy, France, Ireland and China.

Judith Malina’s hand is photographed after the show “No Place to Hide” at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center. New York, NY. March 22, 2014 ©Gaia Squarci

Actors of the Living Theatre Company rehearse the play “No Place to Hide”, written and directed by Judith Malina, at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center. The play, a work in progress, is the first production of the company after leaving their theater of seven years on 21 Clinton St in 2013. New York, NY. March 18, 2014 ©Gaia Squarci

Judith Malina is photographed at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, where she’s been living since the Living Theatre lost their space on Clinton Street in 2013. February 18, 2015 Malina died on April 10, 2015 ©Gaia Squarci

Living Theatre actors dance in the changing room of Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center after performing the play “No Place To Hide”. New York, NY March 29, 2014 ©Gaia Squarci

Judith Malina and Living Theatre executive producer Brad Burgess are photographed in the garden of the Lillian Booth Actors Home, in Englewood, New Jersey. Malina and Burgess have been living together for six years when the company had a theatre on Clinton Street. Burgess has been the person who most took care of Malina since the death of her second husband, Hanon Reznikov. November 11, 2014 Judith Malina died on April 10, 2015. Burgess became artistic director of the Living Theatre and Judith Malina’s successor according to Malina’s will when she was alive. ©Gaia Squarci

Judith Malina and Brad Burgess, Malina’s closest friend and executive producer of the Living Theatre, brainstorm about a new play they are writing together, called “Mars and Venus”. Englewood, NJ. November 6, 2014 Judith Malina died on April 10, 2015. Burgess became artistic director of the Living Theatre and Judith Malina’s successor according to Malina’s will when she was alive. ©Gaia Squarci

Living Theatre executive producer Brad Burgess is photographed on his way back to New York after visiting Judith Malina in Englewood, NJ. Feb 21, 2015 Judith Malina died on April 10, 2015. Burgess became artistic director of the Living Theatre and Judith Malina’s successor according to Malina’s will when she was alive. ©Gaia Squarci

Living Theatre actors perform the ending sequence of the show “No Place to Hide” in front of the theatre they built in Black Rock City, NV. August 29, 2014 ©Gaia Squarci